Armchair Theorising
Since I started my masters at Wimbledon College of Arts, my practice has evolved immensely. The steep learning curve I have experienced has allowed me to self-reflect and self-enquire myself as concerns my personal interests and even on some aspects of my personal and very individual perception of what I believe Art means.
"Art is a way of finding and portraying ourselves in our own existence. It is a way of self-acknowledgement in the present, in the now. More than that art makes us self enquire about the existence of the outside world; it makes us wonder about space and time and how they affect us. The artist identity is always and tries to not fall in reconstructions of others surrounded in the same space."
Moreover, my current practice has had a deep effect on my lifestyle as I became increasingly more self-aware of contemporary issues, like environmental degradation worldwide, touching too on the socioeconomic reality of the western world we inhabit. I realised that in order for us to conserve and avoid environmental degradation we may need to dedicate more effort in improving our industries and transforming them into more eco-friendly ones.
This is problematic, however, as society is often faced with difficulties and challenging tasks created by ourselves in the first place. As such, and in order for conservation to be successfully implemented nowadays, I argue, industrialisation needs to step in to avoid the inherent catastrophic loss of biodiversity in our habitat. The balance between nature and industry is thus required.
Given this, I explore – through different materials such as metal and environmentally friendly paper – how resources connect and work together as one in order to make assure conservation is achieved.
Identity and space
This installation explores the impact an environment can have on one’s identity, drawing heavily on my own experience as a bi-culture individual in the Western world. As I argue, when one individual is bi-cultural – i.e. their identity shares values and customs from two different nations – their consciousness and subconsciousness adapt to their surroundings by manipulating the way one functions in order to fit the ‘mold’ of the current society in which one is operating. Hence, the environment in which one is set has coercive power over individuals in shaping their actions in hopes of fitting in; despite their bi-cultural nature that often renders this problematic.
Problematic as to be socially accepted in society one often is faced with the task of choosing which cultural norms and values to obey (implying the individual has to at least temporarily ‘let go’ of one side of their identity) in order not to be segregated or regarded as an ‘outcast’. Here, one could also argue that this process is somehow structurally and socially violent towards individuals that have a multiplicity of cultures in their repertoire as it undoubtedly forces them to chose their ‘culture’ in ways that conform with society’s norms.
That process is visible throughout our whole lives. Given this, I explore and compare the ‘performance’ a bi-cultural individual goes through by drawing an analogy between humans and nature. As I claim, nature is also constantly adapting in order to survive to its surroundings, often struggling to do so. To demonstrate this, I tried to manipulate the environment the plants are growing in – in a way that is not normal ‘outside’ – to highlight their capacity to live despite having to ‘conform’ the dynamic and fluid installation.
The outcome of this experience was not what I had expected. I found out that I do not have enough experience or knowledge on how to grow plants effectively in order to manipulate them to this extent. I will be pursuing this project in the future in order to do so successfully, as I think the concept behind it is very strong. Next time, however, I will make sure to request help from someone who is specialised in this area.
Process - Teabags
In my work, I explore and aim to demonstrate how one can decontextualize an object and thus artificially interrupt the historical and temporal dimension of a tea bag in a way that renders its conceptualization and perception in today’s society as meaningless. By looking and grasping its mere materiality, stripping it away from its contextual reasoning, the function and value of tea bags – or any other everyday object – is lost and so is its social and cultural signifier/referent nature. In other words, its intrinsic value is lost when there is no framework of comprehension that sustains it.
Sketchbook - Reflective Thinking
My sketchbook is the only way for me to understand and reflect on my own personal feelings, ideas, inspirations, and even future experimentations that I may want to try out. It is a creative process that helps me comprehend what I want to express and how there are multiple ways of doing so. Frequently, I tend to explore different methods to communicate my own ideas/concepts through my practice.
In my own practice, I normally tend to use a combination of living materials (e.g. seeds) and more industrials ones (e.g. metal). The point being that we can connect the two of them into one piece that explores its symbiotic connection. By recording and writing down all of my ideas in a sketchbook, I find it becomes useful and easier to (re)think the rationale and application of my ideas into projects, especially when I am struggling with finding possible answers for hypothetical research questions.